In flies, small silencing RNAs are sorted between Argonaute1 (Ago1), the central protein component of the microRNA (miRNA) pathway, and Argonaute2 (Ago2), which mediates RNA interference. Extensive double-stranded character-as is found in small interfering RNAs (siRNAs)-directs duplexes into Ago2, whereas central mismatches, like those found in miRNA/miRNA* duplexes, direct duplexes into Ago1. ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been suggested to play important roles in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. In this study, we examined miRNA expression profiles during 3T3-L1 pre-adipocyte differentiation. We constructed miRNA libraries from pre- and post-differentiated 3T3-L1 cells, and identified the expression of 77 previously reported miRNAs and 3 new miRNAs. Next, we investigated...

Primary microRNA (pri-miRNA) mimics are important mediators of effective gene silencing and are well suited for sustained therapeutic applications. Pri-miRNA mimics are processed in the endogenous miRNA biogenesis pathway, where elements of the secondary RNA structure are crucial for efficient miRNA production. Cleavage of the pri-miRNA to a precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA) by Drosha-DGCR8 typically...

Several vertebrate microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in cellular processes such as muscle differentiation, synapse function, and insulin secretion. In addition, analysis of Dicer null mutants has shown that miRNAs play a role in tissue morphogenesis. Nonetheless, only a few loss-of-function phenotypes for individual miRNAs have been described to date. Here, we introduce a quick and versat...

Current technologies that are used for genome-wide microRNA (miRNA) prediction are mainly based on BLAST tool. They often produce a large number of false positives. Here, we describe an effective approach for identifying orthologous pre-miRNAs in several primates based on syntenic information. Some of them have been validated by small RNA high throughput sequencing data. This approach uses the ...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) hold great potential as novel systems for nucleic acid delivery due to their natural composition. Our goal was to load EVs with microRNA that are synthesized by the cells that produce the EVs. HEK293T cells were engineered to produce EVs expressing a lysosomal associated membrane, Lamp2a fusion protein. The gene encoding pre-miR-199a was inserted into an artificial ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an emerging class of small non-coding RNAs implicated in a wide variety of cellular processes. Research in this field is accelerating, and the growing number of miRNAs emphasizes the need for high-throughput and sensitive detection methods. Here we present the successful evaluation of the Megaplex reverse transcription format of the stem-loop primer-based real-time quanti...

The endogenous small RNAs known as microRNAs (miRNAs) found in the genomes of both animals and plants are highly conserved by evolution, suggesting a fundamental biological function. MicroRNAs are cleaved from larger hairpin precursors (Figure 1), and it is the mature, cleaved, approximately 22-nucleotide miRNA that currently is the focus of most research. The inherent homology between the long...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are one class of endogenous non-coding RNA which can repress protein translation or cause target mRNA degradation(Bartel 2004). Currently 15,172 entries, including 1,048 human miRNAs, are recorded in a major miRNAs database miRbase (Release 16: Sept 2010) (Kozomara and Griffiths-Jones 2011). MiRNAs reside reside in protein-coding, intronic and intergenic regions throughout th...